Mobile communication devices have become increasingly common in current society. The prevalence of these mobile communication devices is driven in part by the many functions that are now enabled on such devices. Increased processing capabilities in such devices means that mobile communication devices have evolved from being pure communication tools into sophisticated mobile multimedia centers that enable enhanced user experiences.
The redefined user experience requires higher data rates offered by wireless communication technologies, such as Wi-Fi, long-term evolution (LTE), and fifth-generation new-radio (5G-NR). To achieve the higher data rates in mobile communication devices, a radio frequency (RF) signal(s) may be first modulated by a transceiver circuit(s) based on a selected modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and then amplified by a power amplifier(s) prior to being radiated from an antenna(s). In many wireless communication devices, the power amplifier(s) and the antenna(s) are typically located in an RF front-end (RFFE) circuit communicatively coupled to the transceiver circuit(s) via an RFFE bus as defined in the MIPI® alliance specification for radio frequency front-end control interface, version 2.1 (hereinafter referred to as “RFFE specification”).
In this regard, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary RFFE bus structure 10 as defined in the RFFE specification. The RFFE bus structure 10 includes an RFFE master 12 coupled to a number of RFFE slaves 14(1)-14(N) over an RFFE bus 16. According to the RFFE specification, the RFFE bus 16 is a two-wire serial bus that includes a data line 18 and a clock line 20 for communicating a bidirectional data signal SDATA and a clock signal SCLK, respectively.
Notably, not all communications require a two-wire serial bus like the RFFE bus 16. In some case, a single-wire serial bus may be sufficient or even desired for carrying out certain type of communications between circuits. As such, it may be possible to provide a single-wire bus, either concurrent to or independent of, the RFFE bus 16 in a wireless communication device. Further, it may also be desired to make the single-wire bus compatible with the RFFE bus 16.